Facility 1391

Harvard Law Professor and defender of torture, Alan Dershovitz, claimed in 2003 that Israel “outlawed torture“:

“They were the only country in the world ever directly to confront the issue, and it led to a supreme court decision…outlawing torture, and yet Israel has been criticized all over the world for confronting the issue directly.”

So what about Facility 1391? The Guardian report of 2003 makes for chilling reading:

“Facility 1391 has been airbrushed from Israeli aerial photographs and purged from modern maps. Where once a police station was marked there is now a blank space. Sometimes even the road leading to it has been erased.”

Charges of torture, rape and psychological torment abound. One leftwing MP, Zahava Gal-On, describes Facility 1391 as “one of the signs of totalitarian regimes and of the third world”.

Furthermore, Israeli Shin-Bet officers were sent to Iraq in 2003/04 to assist the US “with the most difficult interrogations.” One major question remains unanswered: were the Israelis involved in torture, and if so, has their role been suppressed?

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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